Happy New Year! Aside from a nice break during the holidays, we’ve spent the last few months with our heads under the hood, upgrading the game engine to Unity 6, reworking the training flow, and implementing some fundamental changes to how races start and how rovers handle as we push towards release.
Here are the highlights of what we've been up to since the Fusang reveal.
We’ve upgraded the stage entry experience. Instead of simply spawning at the start line ready to go, players will now drive to the start line themselves during the intro sequence.
This isn't just for immersion, it gives you strategic freedom. The start gates have been widened, allowing you to angle your rover to navigate the first checkpoint or terrain exactly how you want. You will have total control over your approach and positioning before the countdown even begins.
We’ve done a major pass on the RCS Thrusters to give each vehicle class a more distinct personality and progression as you rise from the starter to fastest classes. Previously, every rover had similar air control capabilities. Now, their RCS profiles are strictly tied to their class:
UTV: Pitch/Tilt only (limited air control).
Exo4: Up/Down + Pitch/Tilt.
Exo6: Full control (All axis).
Miner: None (You're on your own!).
To help players master these differences, we’ve overhauled the tutorials. The flow is faster and the introduction more friendly to new players.
We've introduced a new tire type: Paddles. These are monsters on soft terrain like sand, mud, and salt, providing incredible forward bite. However, they come with a trade-off: they have poor lateral (side-to-side) grip and perform terribly on rock or hard surfaces. They demand a different driving style - less sliding, more point-and-shoot.
We’ve been working hard on refining the physics engine to ensure the rovers handle predictably during landings and hard impacts, and have been generally hunting a nasty 'high speed eject from the terrain' bug.
For those playing on gamepads or who prefer not to shift manually, we’ve implemented a new Auto-Shift system based on virtual RPM. It’s smarter and smoother than our previous iteration. For the tuners out there, you can now tune Differentials in the setup screen. You can tweak both your axle and center diffs power on/off behaviour, drastically changing how the rover rotates in different scenarios.
We've also been spending a lot of time on performance in general, stability, bug fixing, tuning, testing, stage timing, difficulty tuning, story improvements and so on. We're not at the stage yet to be able to offer a release date, but we're starting to get close now!
Features & Gameplay
Start Line Freedom: Drive to the line and position your rover at any angle within the wider start gate.
RCS Class Update: RCS capabilities are now unique to each vehicle class (UTV limited to pitch, etc.).
New Tire Type: Paddle Tires added (High fwd grip on soft surfaces, low lateral grip).
Differential Tuning: Torque splitter adjustments, axle diff and center diff.
Auto-Shift: New virtual RPM-based system for smoother automatic shifting.
New Earth Refresh: Terrain overhaul with new mud/water textures, raised tree stumps, and better distant terrain.
Training Overhaul: Faster flow, new Boost RCS tutorials, and timed Advanced Training.
Incidents: Introduced crash incidents which can cause repair delays in Campaign mode.
Physics & Vehicles
Physics Stability: Work continues bug hunting some problem physics explosions
Tire Model: Increased friction contrast from peak to limit, plus slicks are now stickier on rock but lose significant traction on wet rock.
Aero Buff: All rovers have slightly higher aero values (more traction at speed, faster jump touchdowns).
CoM locks: Center of Mass locked on all classes
Miner Update: Fatter wheels, wider track, thinner tray.
Dynamic Drag: Lateral sand drag is now more accurate.
Visuals & Tech
Engine Upgrade: Project updated to Unity 6.
Fusang Optimization: Massive performance pass (shader complexity reduced, particles optimized) for better FPS.
Tensei Update: Environment textures, lighting, and terrain splats updated.
UI: Repair tabs are now clickable; repair commands removed from tutorials.
Fixes
Fixed: Fog/Water interaction on Tensei.
Fixed: RCS cooling was too efficient in rain (you could boost forever).
Fixed: Leaderboard rows breaking online views.
Fixed: Snow on Dhool no longer locks to local space.
Fixed: Replay cameras skipping static cameras.